1. Field of the Invention
The present invention provides an order supporting system, an order supporting method, and a recording medium, and more particularly an order supporting system, an order supporting method, and a recording medium for supporting the ordering of supplies of devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Inside an office of a company, numerous devices, such as a printer, a copy device, a fax device, or a multi-function peripheral (MFP) having the functions of the foregoing devices, are connected via a network.
All the above-described devices include consumable supplies that are consumed when using the devices. The functions of the devices can be maintained by appropriately exchanging the consumable supply (hereinafter also referred to as “supply”). For example, a consumable supply for a printer may be a toner, a fixing unit, a disposal toner bottle, a photoconductor, or a developer.
Since it is difficult to determine the degree of consumption of the devices just by looking at the devices from the outside, the user is able to recognize shortage of a supply, such as toner, and the need to exchange the toner only when an error is reported to the user upon commanding a printing operation. In order to reduce the workload of the user, various approaches, for example, a device that detects the supply duration and displays or prints information regarding the supply, a device that recognizes a shortage of the supply and sends a signal notifying the supply needs to be changed to a customer center, or a device that automatically orders the supply according to remaining amount, have been proposed.
However, the situation of supply provision varies according to each device or each maintenance contract. For example, the following case is assumed. Although the user does not have to purchase supplies for an MFP, the use typically concludes a maintenance contract for the MFP that includes the supply provision and delivery cost of the supply. However, the user has to purchase supplies for a stand-alone device, such as a facsimile device, printer, or copier, when necessary.
In such a situation, the user may have to purchase the overlapping supply regarding the stand-alone devices that is included in the maintenance contract, even if the device automatically detects a shortage of the supply or orders the supply. That is, a problem of double-ordering of supplies may occur.